As disclosed in the Gable et al. U.S. Pat. 4,401,425, control devices for shutting down gas fired furnaces in the event the flue gas venting system becomes clogged are known in the art. In the Gable et al. patent, flue gases from a collector box are moved by a fan or blower into a second discharge box and then exhausted into a vent pipe. A baffle is used to direct the flue gases from the blower to the vent pipe to produce a negative pressure within the discharge box to produce a natural draft in the flue system.
A draft safeguard switch (DSS) is attached to the side of the discharge box and includes a chimney-like connector through which ambient air is drawn into the discharge box during normal operations. If a pressure above ambient pressure builds up in the discharge box, because of a fault in the venting system, flue gases are forced out of the discharge box through the connector, thereby raising the temperature in the connector. A temperature sensitive switch is attached to the connector which opens when a threshold temperature is sensed which, in turn, shuts down the furnace and the fuel supply valve.
Although the DSS system described in the Gable et al. patent works well in practice, it does not lend itself readily to use in multi-poise furnaces where the furnace can be oriented in a number of different positions that require the flue pipe to be correspondingly reoriented. As noted, the system disclosed by Gable et al. includes a fixed baffle which is needed to create a negative pressure within the discharge box so that the flue gases can flow naturally into the vent system. Although many of the prior art systems operate well in practice, the overall sensitivity of the devices in detecting a restriction in the vent system of a gas fired furnace is generally lower than desired.